Rising profile of Open Source in retail tech

I visited the RBTE expo at Olympia on 10th March to gain a perspective of the progress of Open Source in retail technology, we were not disappointed with what we found.

It was clear to see the profile of Open Source is emerging within the retail industry. We found most exhibitors embed Open Source at some level within their offerings, this may be through cloud infrastructure, Android or Open Source developments.

Odoo, who topped the bill on the e-Commerce bootcamp, demonstrated how their software can enable the rapid implementation of an e-Commerce module within their business management suite of applications. Their stand featured the full end to end business management solution including point of sale, warehouse management and accounting with particular focus on the drag and drop website and e-commerce builder. Currently, the Odoo suite is provided under an Open Source AGPL license and is written in a modular Python framework. A partner channel provides implementation services, Odoo offer direct hosted sales and an enterprise contract guarantee.

Shopware made their UK début at the show, prominently and proudly displaying the words “Open Source”. This attracted much attention and conversation as passers by who may have heard of Open Source, and wanted more information, stopped to talk to the exhibitor. Shopware provide an Open Source e-commerce platform ,written in PHP ,which is popular across mainland Europe. The application is often used as a front-end on top of legacy ERP and database systems. They support an extensive set of plugins and an enterprise support option, the software is released under an Open Source license.

Akeneo also made their UK début with their Open Source Product Information Management tools. Also created in PHP, the Akeneo tools enable data to be consolidated from multiple sources and made available to online applications, mobile apps and even printable outputs. The solution includes a powerful import and export function which enables it to connect with many ERP systems, databases and even CSV files. Akeneo provide their application through a BSD-style license and offer enterprise services.

Last but not least is the Open Source powerhouse of e-commerce, Magento. Also a PHP application, Magento has a large community of integrators and developers to support and develop the Open Core and associated commercial modules. Recently acquired by Ebay Enterprises, Magento had a large presence, sponsoring the lanyards and taking a large stand space, shared with a selection of integrators.

Although not Open Source, one stand that also caught our eye was the Flapit cloud-connected departure board which displays real-time statistics taken from social media and other sources in the virtual world bringing them into a tangible form in the physical world. The Flapit display is just over half a meter wide and resembles a 1960s electronic calendar clock.

It was pleasing to see that the Open Source stands drew more than their fair share of visitors, leaving some of the more established names kicking their heels. This was in part due to to the contemporary and clean presentation style of the Open Source companies, and the intuitive and easy to use applications on offer.

Pleased to learn that @NHSDigital are 'looking for an experienced #OpenSource software expert' - 'to raise awareness of NHS open source' and ' practically support the health and care system to realise open source’s full potential'